Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Ok so here's how it happened...

I actually bought the ring on Saturday morning, while I was in New York's Diamond District (shout out to Kevin, Andre and Janelle for helping me out). So on my train ride home on Sunday afternoon, my plan was to take the ring to get appraised, sit on it for a week or two, and the propose next week at some point. I knew how I wanted to do it, but I wanted to think about exactly what I wanted to say when I popped that magical question.

But when I got home and saw my lady struggling with allergies, but still managing to look good, I said to myself, there is no way in HELL that you are getting out of this night without saying anything, so get your sh*t together. So, while the lady napped and got her beauty rest, I took out a pen and a post-it note, and I wrote down some key points I wanted to hit in my "will-you-marry-me" speech. That is not the kind of speech you want to be mumbling and fumbling through on one hand, but on the other side, I was way too lazy to write down the speech verbatim. So bullet points were my own personal compromise. From that point, I just kept repeating the speech in my head over and over again. I felt like an actor trying to memorize his lines before the audition...

**sidebar** I met my lady in 2005, we dated for two months and it sucked and we fell out, and then we became good friends who shared everything but never saw each other in person Then I innocently saw her out one day in April of 2007, but we still just remained at the friendly level. Then in 2007, just a few days after the fire where I lost everything but my laptop, we started hanging out, and then it became more and more serious, and then we were together. So she literally came back to me when I had nothing, and now my laptop is allowing me to write, appear on the radio, meet NBA stars and all that, and she is still here. That is very significant to me **sidebar off**

So later on that night, while the lady was in the shower, I took the ring, and hid it in the bag of letters in the game of Scrabble. We had not played in a couple of weeks, and my plan was to convince her to play to kick off my surprise. She got out of the shower, got dressed, poured herself (and me) a glass of wine, and I set up the Scrabble board. We both chose letters to see who would could go first, and she chose the letter "A" and I picked the letter "U", which meant she would get her letters first. At first I was thinking to myself, "Damn she didn't feel that ring box the first time?" but I remained calm.

As she dug her hand back into the bag to get more letters, the lady noticed the box, and she was like, "What the hell?". Then when she took the box out, and saw that it was a ring box, she started screaming, crying and gyrating, which was my cue to begin that short walk around the table. I was shaking, my lip was quivering, and the bullet points I had been practicing all day long, just left my head completely. Still, I somehow mustered up a bit of composure, and I got down on my knee, and gave her a speech that lasted a minute or so, but it felt like 2 hours. At first when I was talking, the lady was crying, holding her head in her hands, and just moving all around the damn place. I explained to her that for this to work, I needed eye contact, and she looked me right in the eyes. I finished my speech, asked her to marry me, and she said yes.

After that the phone calls began, the facebook status changed, I wrote a sentence of a blog entry, and now here we are. Some other wonderful things happened too, but I don't write that kind of blog. I wish I could promise you that there won't be days when I write mushy blogs about this event, but I cannot. I also wish I could promise to start countdown-to-marriage blog like my friend Dana, but I'm too lazy for all that. So I can promise to be the same Rashad I've always been, but every now and then it will get mushy, and you all will just have to suck on it and like it.. Also, I have no clue when the wedding is (late this year, early next year), how big it will be, and all that stuff. But I'll keep you posted.

But what I CAN promise you, is that from this point forward, she is now my fiancee, not my lady. That rolls off the fingers a little better. And now, I will link the song that was playing when I met my fiancee on April 1, 2005. We were at a bar called the Common Share (which is now shut down) and I played this song on the jukebox. I remember noticing that she didn't know any of the words to this song, except the part that said, "I got more than just some good d**k, and some money", and I was like wow, she's a FREAK!!!

Be Here - Raphael Saadiq featuring D'Angelo

13 comments:

£ said...

awww. I love it! wonderful news. congrats famalam :-)

(lol @ your common share (RIP) memory. it's the little things isn't it? :-] )

Jamal said...

Oh Lance!!

Jazzbrew said...

Well done sir. Very well done.

a. o. mcclyde said...

wow. congrats! i like the breakdown of the stages of your relationship.

Me said...

BEAUTIFUL! :) Now EYE feel all mushy and happy. Thanks for sharing, Rashad. I wish you and your fiance the absolute best. Hooray for black love!!! :D

spirit_55 said...

**Giggles** I love how you and the lady didn't have that love at first sight kind of romance thing happening.

Love requires some work.....
Congratulations, again Rashad. Job well done!

Susan K. said...

Congrats Rashad!

nichole said...

she is a kindred spirit.
see, raphael said he was more than just a big d*ck and some money.
that's cool you got a big johnson, raph.
but d'angelo said he was more than just some GOOD D*CK and some money.

good peen is always better than big peen b/c big doesn't necessarily mean it knows what to do.

BUT
big, good peen is always NUMBER ONE!

bfnh. said...

congrats. great story. great song. good luck with it all.

Anonymous said...

That was so so sweet. I love it. Haven't met you yet but you sound like a wonderful guy. Congrats to you both.

-Renita's cousin

Jo said...

Congrats to you! I am sooo very proud of you! :o)

Nina said...

Awww CONGRATS! I just now read the entry. Welcome to the world of the engaged! She is a lucky woman and I am sure you are a lucky man :) I wish you both the best!

Robinski said...

Congrats and beautiful blog. I actually teared up. You have a good woman..we been buddies since the BR days. LOL